Unlock Your Best Content: A Guide To Better Blog Writing

More and more network marketers are using the internet to spread the word about their products. With all of the free or low-cost methods of marketing online, it makes perfect sense that MLM is shifting toward social media and blog writing. The good news is that network marketers can advertise their product easily, frequently, and cost-effectively. The bad news is that it can be a bit overwhelming to do it all on your own, especially if you’ve never tried it before. It’s helpful to know that there’s guides and information on how to go about setting up your online marketing strategy and building out your internet presence.

Facebook and Twitter are great for network marketers when they’re looking to give their audience quick snippets on business updates, product information or exciting news. But what about a more comprehensive look at a product or a company profile? This is where blogs and websites come in; they give a marketer a wider platform to allow for more information. Blog writing lets you connect with your readers and your customer base through useful content and it gives your prospects an online place to go to get to know you and your company. It can also help you stay connected with your downline where you can offer advice and keep levels of motivation high.

But there’s a science to it all: there may not be one tried and proven method for creating a sensational blog, but there are reasons why certain readers are attracted to some blogs over others, and a lot of it has to do with how the writer connects with their audience.

Blog Writing to Connect With Your Readership

First off, if you’re going to start a blog to market your company, you want to make sure it’s something you’re passionate about doing. If you’re not excited about creating great content or growing a loyal group of followers through in-depth and relatable articles, then it will become a chore and eventually be a burden on your time. Some people love to get out in the world and speak with people personally instead of writing content for the web, and this is perfectly fine. Do what you love, and stick with what you’re good at.

But if you’ve decided a blog is right for you and your MLM company mission, below are some tips for how to reach out to your readers and offer them something useful.

Grab Their Attention

A blogger can write the most interesting articles about a subject, but if there’s nothing to attract a readership then no one will notice. Do something fun and unique to drive traffic to your posts. Use media, such as pictures or photos to visually attract readers, and be creative with headlines so your target audience will feel inspired to keep reading.

Think of a headline as an invitation into the article, not a distraction from it. When I say distraction, I mean don’t use headlines that aren’t relevant and are solely created to attract readers without offering content to match. Make sure your headline opens up the door to your content and doesn’t stand in the way of it.

Know Your Target Audience

Keep content relevant for those who are visiting the site, but also those you want to visit the site. If content is king, then the audience is the kingdom, and you can’t have a king without a kingdom. Listen to them carefully and understand their needs and motives so you can address them thoughtfully. Know who you’re targeting so you can attract them with useful content.

One good way to find out more about your target audience is to visit other relevant sites and read both the content and the comments section. Take note of what sort of content the writer uses to address the needs of the audience, and get to know the readers by reading the comments.

Develop a Voice

When I say voice, I don’t mean the pitch or timbre of your vocal chords. I mean your creative voice, that distinct tone of your pieces that your readers will come to recognize as unique to you. We read certain authors for their wit, we make friends because of their humor or their compassion, and we watch television shows because of the characters and personalities. Your voice is your personality, it’s what gives your readers something to recognize and familiarize themselves with, and your creative tick and tone of writing can make you relatable on a deeper level.

The easiest step in developing your creative voice is to write as if you’re speaking. If we let our personalities shine through our posts, our readers will get to know who we really are and what our motives are. We can build an honest and profound connection with our readers if we let our unique qualities show.

Give Them What They Want

Marketing a product online is a great free or low-cost tool for advertising, but the downside is that it’s all up to you to produce great blog content, social media posts, videos, and tweets. Typically, network marketers who use the internet to advertise don’t have the huge production teams that large corporations do, and they rarely hire advertising firms to help them develop their brands. When marketing your product online and creating your own message to attract readers, keep in mind that it’s not the product your readers care most about, it’s what your product can do for them. Understand your customer base and their needs, and address these needs in your strategy. Keep the focus on them.

Always Check Spelling and Grammar

Yes, a blogger can lose readers if there’s a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes. Mistakes aren’t just glossed over, they’re an interruption in the reading cycle and they call attention to themselves more than the content, no matter how great the content. I’m imagining myself reading the newspaper on a peaceful morning and someone’s standing over my shoulder and chirping in my ear every few minutes. Annoying? Yes. I lose my concentration; and after a little while I put the paper down and leave the room. Even the untrained eye is halted by the blinding errors that seep through unrevised content, and too many of these interruptions can make them want to stop reading altogether.

One or two mistakes every now and then is inevitable, but read and reread your posts more than just once before you publish them to make sure all glaring misspellings or misplaced commas are corrected. This also gives you the opportunity to clean up any awkward sentences that went unnoticed and the overall quality of the post will improve.

Encourage Participation

Readers often have great insight on a blog post, especially readers who are committed to and regularly engaged in the content. A post can be a great way to open up the conversation and invite readers to participate through the comments section, and they can engage even further by sharing content and spreading the word on industry forums. One example of encouraging participation is to suggest leaving a comment about a particular subject. Another is to invite them to sign up for an email list, to like or share on Facebook, or to suggest they subscribe to your YouTube channel or follow you on Twitter.

Participation doesn’t just have to be measured by online interaction. Get them mentally involved with your blog by asking a question that gets them thinking, challenge them to do something brave in their lives, motivate them to take risks, or offer sound advice for overcoming obstacles. Readers want to be actively involved, they want the content to transcend the boundaries of the computer screen and travel with them in their daily lives by inspiring and intellectually stimulating them.

Let Consistency Reign Over Frequency

People come to expect certain things to happen at a certain time. We wake at the same time every morning, take a scheduled lunch break, watch television shows during their routine slots. Inconsistency in blog writing signifies a disorganized breakdown in structure, so keep your posts coming at a consistent pace.

Sure, bloggers should be frequent with their posts as well. But sacrificing great, consistent content for frequent posts isn’t recommended. The bond between the reader and the writer can be a strong one even if they’ve never met face-to-face. Readers want to feel like they’re connecting on a deep and personal level, and fly-by-night, quickie blog writing doesn’t offer that level of engagement.

Share For the Sake of Sharing

Just be nice. Cite sources, share other posts or blogs that you think your audience would find useful. There is a selfish reason for doing this in that if you share others, they may share yours, but don’t get hung up on this notion and come to expect something in return from fellow content writers. Selfishness is transparent, and the blogosphere may not want to get on board with a site if the writer is mainly concerned with more hits and a wider readership than quality and community.

Promoting your own blog in the comments of another one is not considered sharing, no matter how many times you link to that blog on your own site. Share just for the sake of opening the doors to new articles and ideas from around the web. Your audience will appreciate it.

Market That Post

Use media outlets to let readers know that a new post is up. Send out a Facebook or Google+ message or a tweet. This is a great way to turn one time readers into returning visitors, because they’ll be reminded of your blog through other media outlets. Spread the word about your site and market it whenever you can.

The Unique and Valuable Reader

Blog writing shouldn’t be about the number of hits a site gets, it should be about connecting with the audience and understanding their interests and values. Like MLM, a blog isn’t going to spring up overnight and get a thousand hits its first day on the job. It takes time, patience, and will. Be credible, available, useful, and work on connecting with your readership. Your readers will want to return if they trust you as a writer and care for your content. Community first, hits second. Build relationships with your readership, just like you would your downline and customer base.

J. Audrey Hoy is the CatalystMLM team’s resident wordsmith. With a master’s of fine arts degree from New York University, J. Audrey has served as an Adjunct Instructor of Creative Writing at NYU and she currently works as the Content Editor and contributor at CatalystMLM. Originally hailing from the Chicagoland area, J. Audrey has previously resided in Iowa City, Brooklyn and currently lives in Burlington, Vermont. She spends her free time reading novels, writing, exploring the Burlington area and enjoying the outdoors.